As noted yesterday, Goto and Tenzan are both out of the tournament. I predicted Tenzan wouldn't make it through but am sad about Goto having to leave. He had some intriguing matches going into the final days, and now he and his opponents won't have matches.

I'll be skipping the tag match to save time and because I have no interest in it.

NJPW, 8/10/13 (TV Asahi ch1 & ch2)
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

G1 Climax – Block A: Prince Devitt vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr.

Davey got the win here with a liger bomb. Good match though as always, the interference was lame. The crowd was lukewarm for Davey but by the end, he got over. He looked good here. He played towards the crowd and played up his size well.

G1 Climax – Block B: Karl Anderson vs. Yujiro Takahashi

The girls spoke pre-match and there were multiple people yelling "damare" which means shut up. I enjoyed that. For anyone wondering, the girls are "tarento" which means talent. In Japan, these girls usually model and sometimes sing or dance along with making appearances. These girls are a dime a dozen in Japan and Japan has tarento for everything from bowling to fishing.

Karl Anderson won with a cutter. Let's put it this way, this peaked with the girls.

G1 Climax – Block A: Satoshi Kojima vs. Lance Archer

Lance Archer won with the crucifix bomb. Good match. The crowd was hot and the pace was good. Archer's offense looked good and Kojima was definitely into this.

G1 Climax – Block B: Toru Yano vs. Shelton Benjamin
This has all the makings of a disaster.

Shelton got the win with a leg/ankle lock. This wasn't very good. It had horrible execution at times and it had lots of shenanigans with cheating and ref bumps. The best thing about this is that it is over and I never have to watch it again.

G1 Climax – Block A: Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Sorry, but I have to make a comment here. Togi Makabe botched a powerbomb on Tomohiro Ishii and ended up Ganso Bombing him on his head. Ishii is holding his neck, so being the genius that he is, Makae decides to grab him by the neck and then german suplex him. What a total reckless idiot.

Togi Makabe won with a King Kong Knee Drop. The match was okay but it was a bit reckless and the selling had some issues. The crowd ate all of it up though. Togi's botched powerbomb was really bad and I hated the lariat no-selling early on. The strikes were good but they didn't have as much emotion behind them as they had in previous matches. The wrong guy also won here because Ishii is double the wrestler Makabe is, yet gets half the push. Rating:***

G1 Climax – Block B: Kota Ibushi vs. Minoru Suzuki

Suzuki won with a Gotch-Style Piledriver. This was no good due to Kota Ibushi. Minoru worked his leg for the first part of the match and then Kota proceeded to sell it by doing flips and jumps, making all of that effort completely useless. I tuned out at this point. Suzuki tried by Kota was crap. Note to all future Ibushi opponents - don't work his leg because he couldn't sell it if his life depended on it.

G1 Climax – Block B: Tetsuya Naito vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Tetsuya Naito won with a Stardust Press. I was let down by this one. The crowd wasn't into it, they didn't have any real story going on and they really just didn't bring it. Nakamura got little in and unfortunately, Naito is adopting the Keiji Mutoh "stare into space" sell. If your idea of entertainment is watching Naito stare into the great beyond for most of the match, you'll love this. But if you want hard hitting wrestling with stories, this isn't it.

I'd also like to point out that Naito is going to end up being injured more than he is active. He loves to miss the Stardust Press every match and I assure you that he's only a few away from blowing out a shoulder.

G1 Climax – Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada

They went to a 30 minute draw. Really good match. It was better than their Invasion Attack match, about on par with their Tokyo Dome match and not quite their 5 star match from last year. The selling was really good and Tana attacked Okada's leg well. They made it obvious early that this was going long, but I didn't even consider the thought of a draw. A finish would have been good, but I'm totally fine with there being more to the story and them having to battle another day. Good effort by both men. Rating:***3/4

Rankings:

Overall thoughts: There was sadly more bad than good on this show. The main was good and should be seen and I liked Ishii's match, but Ibushi was awful and the usual suspects weren't much better in the bad match department. The crowd wasn't totally there until the end though and I didn't like NJPW leaving Shibata totally off the card due to Goto's injury.

"Togi Makabe botched a powerbomb on Tomohiro Ishii and ended up Ganso Bombing him on his head"

from the gif and the photos that I'm seeing, I think it wasn't a botch but was instead a counter from Ishii. and maybe he sold it pretty well by grabbing his neck or whatever but it wasn't really hurting ...